06/18/2026
FAMILY CELEBRATIONS
Blog post by Jeff Hampton
I was in church before I was born. Mom tells the story that while I was being “knit together” in her womb, as the Bible describes, she was printing the weekly worship bulletins at the little Southern Baptist church down the street. I like to joke that her inhaling the fumes from the mimeograph machine explains my moods and other flaws.
Sometimes that’s good for a laugh, sometimes not. What’s no joke and is very real in a good way is how Mom’s personal faith and devotion to her chosen faith family are going strong these many years later, and that’s the part of the story that has rubbed off on me.
In the same week we at Wilshire have celebrated our 75th anniversary, my family is celebrating Mom’s 90th birthday. She’s also celebrating her 65th year at First Baptist Richardson, a church that celebrated its 160th anniversary last year, and where she has been a children’s Sunday school teacher, choir member, deacon, greeter, and member and chair of various committees. She currently serves on the personnel and missions committees, which are no small thing in a big church like hers.
I’ve been at Wilshire going on 36 years in large part because Mom and Dad allowed me to find my own way. When I moved back to Dallas a few years after college, I could have returned to First Richardson where I spent most of my first 18 years, but Mom and Dad never prodded or even hinted I should do that. I took an interim step at another church before landing at Wilshire, and when that became my home, my parents became solid “friends of” Wilshire. They’ve come to special events like our annual Wilshire Winds concerts, Celebration of the Green, seminars with people like author Robert Benson and of course my deacon ordination and wedding with LeAnn.
When I was a kid I often listened as my parents and grandparents had lively conversations about their respective churches. I used to think they were sort of being competitive about it, but as I’ve become more involved at Wilshire, I understand it was just their way of talking about a place they love and that has given them so much. I’ve had the same types of conversations with my parents, steering clear of differences. Wilshire’s and First Richardson’s worship styles are not exactly the same, but our theological leanings are in harmony.
Something interesting about that is those types of differences were never a part of those conversations I heard growing up. They were more about budgets and attendance. Today, stumble into a random conversation with a Baptist from another church and you better be ready for battle because differences and opinions about those differences can be dramatic. The little church where Mom ran the mimeograph machine was known back then as First Southern Baptist Church of Great Falls, Montana, to attract the service men and their families, like ours, who were from the South. They changed their name to Big Sky Baptist Church a while back.
Along with Mom’s birthday, this week also would have been my parents’ 70th wedding anniversary. When Dad passed away in 2022, I was gratified at how her church surrounded her with love and has continued to do so. Wilshire did likewise for me when the same thing happened to me in 2008. And both churches, as well as South Garland Baptist, where LeAnn spent her youth and early adulthood, packed the pews when LeAnn and I married at Wilshire a few years later.
At the end of the day, the faith family we choose should be where we’re best fed spiritually and where we’re best motivated to serve others. More than a few times my parents and I have missed each other’s church’s special events because we’ve been serving simultaneously at one of our own. We understand our respective “church families” are truly families in that they deserve our support.
I’ll be with family this Sunday at First Richardson to celebrate Mom’s milestone birthday. It’s just a small way of thanking her not only for my life but my faith and the very-Baptist gift of finding my own place at Wilshire.
